


Trickster Makes This World

by dogbreath333



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Espionage!, F/M, Language, love!, myth!, two coyotes crossed my path the other night and they told me to write this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-18
Updated: 2019-02-02
Packaged: 2019-10-11 23:31:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17456360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogbreath333/pseuds/dogbreath333
Summary: A tragicomedy in four acts(Danzo holds up a gnarled bone clothed in skin—a finger, which says wait, there’s more, and it will hurt.)





	1. prologue

Danzo summons Bear at 0414 hours.

She goes to him. She kneels. She waits.

“Today Tsunade will send you out with your usual unit. I don’t know what she will tell you, but it will be a lie. As always, maintain a semblance of loyalty to your squad leader _ — _ but your first duty is to the Foundation.”

Bear rises from her crouched position.

Danzo holds up a gnarled bone clothed in skin _ — _ a finger, which says  _ wait, there’s more, and it will hurt. _

“One more thing. You may run into another member. He was slated for deep cover, but his affiliations have become...unclear. Assess his condition. But if he does anything to jeopardize your position, find an excuse to kill him. If it appears your squad has been directed to bring the asset in, kill him. If the asset is in any way unstable, kill him _ — _ I don’t care how. Dismissed.”

 

* * *

  
  


At 0736 hours, Tsunade calls Boar, Bird, and Bear to her office.

They remove their masks out of deference. They are Hyuga Hinata, Uchiha Itachi, and—Danzo always liked orphans best—Tenten. They stand before their Hokage and await instructions.

“I need you three to verify rumors of a potential hideout belonging to Orochimaru outside Takigakure.  _ Don’t _ ,” she warns, “engage. Just observe. Simple stuff, okay? Leave within the hour.”

Tsunade steps out from behind her desk and stands before the trio. She reaches out a hand— _ wait, there’s more,  _ it says. But also,  _ be safe.  _ She grips Itachi’s bare shoulder with great strength, and a flare of chakra. A seal. Lowly, she says, “don’t rest until you’re far from the city.”

Itachi fixes his mask over his face, and is Bird once more. “Understood.”

He turns to go—Bear and Boar follow close behind.


	2. Act I: Boar

Tsunade’s seal burns Bird’s skin, but they won’t stop until they’re past the last of Konoha’s patrols. Boar feels Bird’s pain, and she tells stories to pass the time.

“In the beginning, there were two brothers—twins, they were—both dark of hair, and with clever eyes. They hungered for knowledge of the wide world, and begged that their parents would allow them the freedom to hunt far from home. Grudgingly, they were granted permission.

‘But go not far, and turn not east,’ said the father, ‘for Uktena the horned serpent lives in those waters, and he has many spies.’

On the morning that the twins were to leave, they felt their mother’s grief. ‘Only wait by the river, Mother,’ said the twins, ‘for our prize shall be so great that we will need to fashion a boat and row home.’

So they left, and she waited. Even when the rain came, and her husband pleaded with her to come away, she only said, ‘my sons told me to wait by the river. Until they come, I will stay.’”

Bear clears her throat. “If you two are clearly the twins, does that make me the mother?”

“Tenten,” Bird grits out. “Please be quiet. I feel like I’m going to rip my arm off. Hinata, keep talking.”

“Alright,” Boar says. She looks to Bear sheepishly. “I haven’t decided who you are in the story yet, Tenten. It’ll come to me. Anyway—the twins passed over the ridge and out of their mother’s sight.

‘Look, brother,’ said the taller of the two. ‘Fresh deer tracks, leading straight into the forest.’

The other, more wary brother, hesitated. ‘But they lie east, brother. What if we run into one of Uktena’s spies?’

But the one was always able to convince the other of almost anything. And so against their father’s warning, the twins ran through the forest and carried on joyfully until dusk.

Dark gathers more quickly in the forest, and night fell like it always does. The brothers might have traveled all night with only their eyes to guide them, but it is much more pleasant to spend one’s evening around a fire, rather than stumbling around in the dark.

So they laughed and told stories until they fell asleep. The forest was quiet and peaceful at first, but after an hour or so, the taller twin awoke in a cold sweat. Dread sat in the pit of his belly, and he waited. There it was again—a high, wavering laugh. He shook his sleeping twin awake. ‘Brother,’ he said. ‘Arm yourself, for surely we are being hunted by Uktena himself.’

The other woke, and peered into the dark. ‘My eyes see clearly. It’s nothing but a coyote too cowardly to attack.’

‘But my eyes see the truth, brother,’ the other responded. ‘That is no mere coyote.’

The one pulled the other close. ‘Sleep,’ he said. ‘Things will look better in the morning.’

Still—the coyote laughed at them all night. ‘Who?’ it snickered, again and again. ‘You!’ it answered itself back.

The twins rose at first light, exhausted from their fitful sleep. They were eating rations over a low fire, when—unexpectedly—a coyote crossed their path.

‘You!’ the brothers pointed and shouted in unison.

‘Who?’ answered Coyote in alarm. ‘Me? What have I done?’

‘All night you taunted us. And now you face us in the light of day? Uktena has gotten bold!’

‘Uktena?’ Coyote gasped. ‘I haven’t a thing to do with Uktena. I saw the tracks of a group of deer and followed them this way. After all, a fellow’s got to eat, hasn’t he? Enough talk of Uktena now, or you’ll bring bad fortune on us all.’

The smaller of the twins looked closely at their new companion. ‘If not you, then who? A coyote kept us up all night with his laughing.’

Coyote sat and thought. ‘Did he look like me?’ he asked after a moment.

‘Very like,’ said the twins.

‘Damn him!’ Coyote suddenly sprang to his feet again and began pacing the camp. ‘My good-for-nothing brother. It must have been him. I apologize on his behalf. He is most cruel, but I doubt even he would stoop so low as to work for Uktena.’

The taller twin, whose eyes could see truth, was satisfied. ‘I believe you,’ he assured Coyote. ‘My twin and I are lucky to be so alike in mind. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have a brother like that.’

‘Thank you,’ said Coyote. ‘But let me make it up to you.’

So the three sat by the fire and shared Coyote’s pipe, and passed a few pleasant hours before they went their separate ways.’”

“Itachi,” Bear interrupts again. “I don’t like the way that seal looks. Let’s just stop for a while and deal with it.”

Bird just grunts and looks to Boar. Boar activates her Byakugan and scans the area. “We should have passed the patrols—I don’t see any.”

“Halt,” Bird orders, and they drop to the forest floor.

Bear goes to Bird immediately, ripping off her mask to peer at the seal on Bird’s arm.

“This is time-sensitive,” Tenten says, hands hovering over the seal. “I should have realized.” She finds it’s easier to work when she has a name, and a face.

“Why would Hokage-sama use such a painful seal?” Boar asks. “It must be a serious security issue.” She removes Bird’s mask to rest a cool palm on Itachi’s sweaty face.

Tenten glances at Boar’s hand. Boar’s hand. Hinata’s hand. There’s no reason for it. It just says  _ be strong.  _

“Who knows,” Itachi grits out. “Maybe it’s because she’s a quarter Uzumaki and wants everyone to know it. How’s it looking, Tenten?”

Tenten places her chakra-coated hand fully on the oozing, inky mess of Itachi’s shoulder. It comes away black and dripping, but Itachi groans in relief.

“Hinata, paper, quickly. Then heal his shoulder.” Tenten swipes her pulsing hand across the clean parchment that Hinata provides, and thinks that maybe Danzo’s hand, back in Konoha, is doing the very same thing. Through air, over nothing, holding her strings. She can hear him inside her head.  _ Something to see,  _ he whispers.

The ink on the paper has become words. Boar finishes healing Itachi’s arm and pulls off her own mask, and is Hinata again. She and Itachi come to peek over Tenten’s shoulder at their instructions from Tsunade.

**A recently-placed sleeper agent belonging to Danzo has contacted my Anbu and requested to come in from the cold. Assess his condition and bring him safely back to Konoha without alerting Root. He goes by the name of Sai. He’ll meet you outside Taki in three days time.**

After they’ve all read it, Itachi picks up the piece of paper, angles his head away from the others, and incinerates it with a quick katon. “We have our orders, then. Let’s go.”

“Well, shit,” Tenten mutters.

  
  



	3. Act II: Bird

Hinata never does finish that story—but the rest of the journey to Takigakure goes much more smoothly, so she doesn’t need to. They travel quickly, now that they know what they’re walking into—and without their masks, at Itachi’s insistence.

It’s against Anbu policy, but he’s the squad leader, and he despises masks. (“Shinobi of our caliber shouldn’t have to hide our faces,” he says. “No fool would escape us alive, and if we did meet anyone who might challenge us, he’d recognize us immediately, masks or no masks, whether by our reputations alone or from a glance at a bingo book. Well, except for you, Tenten. You’re a ghost. But anyway, ghosts don’t need to hide.”)

Itachi doesn’t ramble like this, Tenten knows. So he’s uncomfortable, he’s off his game. _Ghosts don’t need to hide?_ That’s funny. In Tenten’s experience, all ghosts have secrets. She wonders if Sai has secrets too. Wonders if maybe he just got tired of keeping them.

It doesn’t matter. Tenten will kill Sai to keep her own. She’s killed for less. They all have.

They make it to Taki’s only satellite town with a whole night to spare before the day they’re supposed to establish contact with Sai. The place is called Kihoku—it’s small, but boasts a massive migrant worker population who make their homes in the woods outside the town. Itachi announces that they’ll camp alongside the migrants. They keep their heads low, and when they bed down for the night, Tenten weaves a quick barrier seal so that no one has to stay awake and keep watch.

Even with the barrier seal though, Itachi finds himself tossing and turning. He tries to think of something, anything, but everything comes up—Shisui.

It’s this mission—it’s Danzo. Danzo, who would would see every Uchiha dead if he could. Danzo who _did_ succeed in ending Shisui’s life, in putting out his light, in taking his eye. Danzo, who’s still free to poison and manipulate...Itachi gives up on sleep.

He sits up, fingers twisted in his necklace. He had two brothers once. But because of Danzo, now he has just one.

He can do something here—he can save someone from Danzo’s influence. He can bring this kid Sai home, Tsunade can hide him away, maybe he’ll give them the opportunity to bring Danzo down. Shisui would have wanted this. But it involves a lot of trust that Itachi’s not necessarily willing to spare. He trusts Hinata. He trusts Tenten. He doesn’t trust a ghost from Root. But Shisui would have wanted him to trust—so trust Itachi will.

Itachi breathes. Three counts in. He holds the breath. Three counts out. He holds. Three counts in. He’s getting ready to lay down again. Then—

The air catches at the top of his breath and strangles there. His Sharingan flickers. His hands begin to prickle with sweat. There’s something unnameable in is belly that wants to claw its way out into the still night air.

_Arm yourself, for surely we are being hunted by Uktena himself._

Itachi startles. Hinata’s silvery voice rings in his ears. Once he thinks the words, he can’t unhear them.

He looks to Hinata. Sleeping.

He looks to Tenten...sleeping. He looks at Tenten. He _looks_ at Tenten. He lays down. He doesn’t sleep anymore that night.

 

* * *

 

In the morning, with no word from Sai yet, and despite Tenten’s pleas that they all lay low, Hinata and Itachi find that they can’t let well enough alone.

Within an hour of waking, Hinata is smoking a cigarette with an old man—the two of them talking quietly, with long pauses in between remarks. She’s rolled up the cuffs of her pants, and discarded her jacket in the warm sun. The old man starts to do the same, and Tenten watches horror dawn on Hinata’s face when she sees the cellulitis that’s ravaged his legs. Hinata talks to him for a moment, then crouches down on the dirt and lets her hands go green.

Hinata’s no great medical ninja. She can do enough. Still, here she is. Delicate hands glowing with chakra. No barrier between her and the man’s infected skin.

 _Waste of time and energy,_ Tenten would say, if she was raised in the Foundation. But she wasn’t. Root came to her later in life. They couldn’t unteach her to feel. She feels. She’s feeling right now. Hinata’s hands are _kindness._

It’s too much. Tenten turns away.

Across the field, Itachi is summoning crows for a group of children too young to work. They’re smitten with him. Of course they are—he’s too handsome for his own good.

He was watching her last night, when he thought she was asleep. She needs to be careful.

A kid falls on one of the crows, and a squabble ensues. Itachi looks comically horrified. Tenten tries to imagine him in Root. Tries to imagine him being cruel. It’s so wrong, she digs her nails into her palms until she might bleed. That’s when the mouse arrives.

“Bird,” Tenten calls out. “Boar!” she adds, for good measure. Best not to just start screaming each other’s names out for no reason.

The mouse is poised in front of Tenten, waiting. It’s tail twitches.

“What is it? Hinata?” Itachi asks when they jog over.

Hinata peers at it for a moment with her Byakugan. “It’s ink,” she marvels. “Run through with chakra. Like for fuinjutsu. Odd—it looks a bit like what Tsunade sealed onto Itachi’s arm, but this is different. It’s—well, maybe you’d know better, Tenten.”

“Let’s hear it, seal-master Tenten,” Itachi smirks.

“Hmm.” Tenten rolls out a piece of paper and reaches for a set of brushes and ink—but before she can even get started, the mouse launches itself at the paper and splatters against it. Words begin forming out of the ink almost immediately.

Tenten shakes her head. “I didn’t do anything. How—”

“He must be strong, this Sai,” Itachi remarks. “Hey, maybe he’s hot too. Maybe he’ll be kind enough to cure you of your dry spell, Tenten.”

“You done, Uchiha?” Tenten glares.

Hinata snatches up the parchment. “Wow, this is interesting. Do...well, no, you guys probably don’t wanna read it. I’ll just…” She starts folding the paper up.

“Okay, okay, sorry.” Itachi reaches a hand out for it. Tenten reads over his shoulder.

 

**My fellow Konoha shinobi—I’m gratified to note your quick arrival. Your assistance is much appreciated. We should meet, one-on-one, as a gesture of good will. Please do not compare dicks over the matter—any one of you will do, and I have no ill intentions. I would just feel more comfortable meeting one of you alone, first. The numbers are not exactly to my advantage. If this is amenable, simply reverse engineer the seal created by my mouse, and follow him back to my place of residence. I am certain that one of you has the balls necessary to complete this task. Best wishes—Sai.**

 

Itachi’s jaw is on the ground. “What the fuck,” he whispers.

Hinata is hiding her smile behind her hands. “So, which one of us is going to do it?”

“I’ll do it,” Tenten shrugs. “I think my balls are big enough to work out the seal.”

Itachi shakes himself back to reality, and closes his mouth with a sharp click of teeth. “I’d better go.”

“And the dick measuring begins,” Hinata sighs. “He said not to measure dicks, guys. How the hell did he know you were going to do that?”

Tenten and Itachi ignore her. “Yeah, no,” Tenten snaps. “He’s not going to be happy when Uchiha fucking Itachi shows up. You’ll scare the shit out of the poor guy. And like you said—I’m a ghost, right? We should be able to relate, one nobody to another.”

Itachi shakes his head vehemently. “Listen Tenten, I’m sorry I said that. You’re not a ghost. You’re family to us. And besides, we don’t know this guy. We don’t know if it’s a trap, or what. He’s _Root._ He works for _Danzo._ I just...I have a weird feeling about this. I don’t think you should go. He sounds...odd, okay? I’ll go.”

Itachi doesn’t do this. Itachi doesn’t sweat. He doesn’t beg. It’s concerning. But it’s also convenient.

Tenten looks to Hinata, who’s giving Itachi her full furrowed-browed attention. “We know how you feel about Danzo, Itachi,” Hinata says gently, but without pity. “That’s why I think Tenten should go.”

Itachi’s fists are clenched. _Shisui,_ they’re saying. Screaming. That was his cousin’s name, Tenten remembers. Shisui.

Without any more words, Tenten gets to work on the seal. It’s slight work for her, after all. The mouse springs back to life. She rises and straps on her weapons. “I’ll be fine, you two. Hinata, keep your Byakugan activated.”

Hinata nods. “I will. If he flashes you, just, uh...holler and we’ll come running.”

Tenten fakes a laugh, because that would be hilarious if she weren’t about to kill this guy. But it’s all for the best. Best if she laughs, best if Hinata’s watching—even better that Tenten suggested it herself. It’s less suspicious. Tenten will make sure she puts on a good show. They won’t suspect. They’ll take her side. They’re her friends, after all.

The mouse is waiting for her. Clever little thing. When she’s ready, it takes of towards town. Tenten follows.

Itachi is silent for a while. Only Hinata speaks, and only to offer updates. (“She’s traveling east...She’s about three kilometers from our location...She’s about five kilometers from our location...She’s arrived...She’s shaking his hand...Oh my, he’s wearing a crop top...They’re talking...They’re still talking...Still talking…”)

Hinata goes quiet for about twenty minutes, busy sharpening kunai, and occasionally looking up and staring off into the middle distance in order to check in.

Itachi is growing impatient. “What are they doing now? You need to update me,” he snaps.

Hinata glances up. “Oh, sorry, yeah. They’re having sex.”

“ _What?”_ Itachi leaps to his feet.

“Yeah, sorry. I’m trying not to watch. That’s a bit intrusive.”

“...What?!” Itachi repeats. “What— _how?”_

“How?” Hinata asks dubiously. “Well, she’s on top—”

“ _No_ , I mean… Are you kidding me?!”

“Yes!” Hinata says, at her loudest volume. (Which is still, relative to most others, an inside-voice.) “Of course I’m kidding, Itachi. You need to calm down. Tenten is a capable kunoichi. That’s why she’s in the _Anbu._ That’s why she’s in _your_ squad.”

Itachi sinks back onto the ground. He’s mollified, more or less. But there’s still something wary behind his eyes. “What are they _actually_ doing then?”

“They’re sitting at a table. Still talking. They look like they’re getting along really well, honestly. Have a little faith in her, Itachi. Trust her.”

 _Trust, then. Fine_. Hinata watches. Itachi waits.


	4. Act III: Bear

Tenten didn’t expect the crop top.

Of course, it is a bit odd—but it isn’t  _ that  _ odd. Shinobi wear all sorts of things. Hinata wears what she wears because she’s sick of people looking at her tits. Itachi dresses the way he does because he doesn’t understand colors. Tenten wears her mother’s old clothes. 

The point is that unless you’re in uniform, there aren’t any rules. No one forced this guy to wear that shirt. He chose it. And it’s all Tenten can think about. He’s standing there with that bizarre, smiley, beatific face, and his eyes are unreadable, and he picked out a crop top this morning. Fuck, who knows, maybe he wears it every day. 

Tenten needs to get it together. She needs to act within the mission’s parameters, and she also needs to assassinate him. She needs to reach out and shake the hand he’s offering to her.

She does. He has cool, dry, calloused hands. Long, artist’s fingers attached to a soldier’s rough palms. He’s speaking a greeting. 

“Did Danzo let you wear that shirt when you were Root? Or is this just you letting your hair down now that you cut loose?”

She’s totally interrupted him. His smile drops for a split second, then bounces back.

“What a rude thing to say,” he remarks mildly. “Maybe you’re menstruating.”

Tenten’s finger twitches towards her scroll, and she bares her teeth. “Anbu pays for my birth control shots. Stops my period, so don’t you worry about that. I would say you’re not what I expected, but I guess your message took care of first impressions.”

“I suppose I could say that you’re not what I expected either—but I knew the risk I was taking. I knew Danzo might intercept my message and send someone to clean up after me. Although,” Sai cocks his head to the side, just a touch. “What I really didn’t expect was that you’d seem so...human.”

“I am human,” Tenten tells him. And herself, and anyone listening. Now her whole hand has inched backwards towards her scroll. “How...?”

Sai shakes his head, and beams. “Root knows Root.”

This is too much. Too much to ask of any one person. Danzo had finally managed to break her. But still, she insists, “I am human.”

Sai nods. “Maybe. You must remember who you were before the Foundation then.”

“I was recruited after I graduated from the Academy. I’m still that person.”

“If you were still that person, how would I have recognized you as Root?” Sai argues.

She should kill him quickly and be done with it.

“Would you like to come inside?” he asks. “I’ve got a fresh pot of coffee.”

It would be best to kill him before she goes into the house. It will make more sense to Hinata, if she’s watching. She should kill him now. “I’d love some coffee,” she says instead.

 

* * *

 

“You must be undercover in this unit,” Sai says as he pours her a mug of coffee. “I don’t know of any Hyugas or Uchihas in the Foundation.”

Tenten is surprised, to say the least. “Your surveillance is excellent. When?”

“Last night. Your barrier seal was quite good.”

“Please—that was nothing. I’ve seen how good your fuinjutsu is. If you wanted to, you could have killed us all then, while we were sleeping.”

Sai blinks. “But I didn’t want to kill you all. I wanted you to bring me safely back to Konoha so that the Hokage could offer me protection in exchange for information.”

So now they’ve come to it. “You understand the position I’m in, don’t you?” Tenten asks.

Sai leans forward in his seat. “What’s your plan then? Have you already decided how you’re going to kill me?”

“I was planning on winging it.”

He laughs. “You’re kinda cute, you know?”

“Yeah?” Tenten is losing what little remaining control she has over this situation. “What are you doing after work? Maybe I’ll pick you up, take you out.”

Sai presses even further forward in his seat. “Oh, I’m sure you’ll take me out if given even half the chance. Why did Danzo choose you for this? You’re not the obvious choice.”

Tenten considers her options. One of them will die. Or both of them. Or...well, she can’t imagine a universe where they both make it out of this alive. So she might as well talk to the only living soul with whom she can be honest. “I think it’s a test,” she confides.

“In that case, this is a very high-stakes test.”

“Not like that,” Tenten shakes her head. “He knows what I’m capable of as a kunoichi. But I think...he sees himself in me. He thinks I might continue his work when he’s gone. He wants to see how I’ll handle you.”

“Is that why you were recruited out of the Academy, instead of taken in as an orphan? Because he wants a human heir, not a machine?”

Tenten swallows. “You don’t sound like a machine.”

Sai smiles his empty smile. “Of course not. I know how to hold a conversation—I’ve been well-trained.” He nails her to the spot with his eyes. “But here’s the difference between us. There’s something  _ broken  _ inside me.”

That can’t be true. If it is, then what’s Tenten’s excuse? She wants to ask him. Tell him she feels it too—the broken machinery parts inside. But instead she asks, “What do you want me to do?”

“Save me.”

“I can’t,” Tenten tells him. Although, Hinata’s phantom voice is in her ear.  _ But the one was able to convince the other of almost anything. And so against their father’s wishes, the twins ran through the forest and carried on joyfully until dusk.  _

_ Save me,  _ he said. “How?” Tenten revises.

“We can run,” Sai suggests easily, and sips his coffee.

“Boar and Bird would come after us.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re my friends, and they wouldn’t abandon me. And then they’d kill me, because they’re loyal to Tsunade.”

“I don’t understand,” Sai says in a flat, frustrated tone. “You say they’re your friends—I don’t know anything about that. But if their bond with you is worth less than their duty to the Hokage, how are they any different from us?”

“It’s not just duty,” Tenten tells him. “They love her—Tsunade. She’s...good. She’s a good woman.”

“Then maybe she can save us both.” 

For the first time, there’s a thread of uncertainty in Sai’s voice. Tenten latches onto it like a lifeline. He’s scared too. Maybe...if they do it together, they can survive. 

“Okay,” Tenten says.

Sai finally sits back. “That wasn’t so bad.”

“What wasn’t?”

He blinks his crescent moon eyes at her. “Putting my life in your hands.”

Tenten’s hands fall open, fingers turned loosely towards her palms. They look the same. There’s no difference. Killing, saving...they’re just hands. And yet—

“My mother was a civilian fortune teller,” she tells him. “She would read palms on the street for a nickel.”

Sai silently offers her his outstretched hands. But something holds her back. 

“Send one of your mice back to my camp,” Tenten instructs. “Tell Bird and Boar we’ll meet them in the woods outside the western gate of the town in thirty minutes.”


	5. Act IV: Coyote

After twenty minutes, Tenten starts to feel uneasy. But she’s a professional. If she telegraphs her anxiety to Sai, this whole thing blows up. Itachi and Hinata though—they don’t _do_ lateness. They’re two of the most punctual motherfuckers Tenten knows.

How long ago was it that she sat in Sai’s house, drinking coffee, telling secrets? An hour? Less? Now she’s standing in a clearing in the woods with a silent stranger.

He’s just anxious too, she tells herself. He’s put his life in her hands. Now he’s waiting to see what she’ll do with it.

And she’s waiting for Hinata and Itachi. _Twins, they were._

They’re suspicious. Something’s set them off. Tenten analyzes the scene she and Sai had created. How they must have looked, what their chakra may have told Hinata.

It’s no good. She can’t think of anything. Although—

“You definitely told them the western gate, right? Not the eastern?” Tenten asks, breaking the silence.

Sai just stares her down. Since it became clear that Hinata and Itachi wouldn’t be arriving forthwith, he’s been quiet as the grave, watching her with wary eyes. Root doesn’t teach faith. But here they are. One untrustworthy traitor trusting another untrustworthy traitor.

“Okay, okay, sorry,” Tenten surrenders lightly. “Just checking. I’m sure they’re just wrapping up whatever charitable crusade of the week grabbed hold of them and wouldn’t let them go.”

“Perhaps,” Sai says.

Tenten turns back to her scrutiny of the forest, and her brain suddenly catches up with her eyes. She’d been staring into the trees, but her focus had shifted. Now that she’s looking again, it’s right there. A crow—Itachi is here.

Tenten makes their hand signal for _everything’s OK,_ and _stand down,_ and _get the fuck out here, will you?_ But there’s nothing. The crow just watches.

“Or perhaps,” Sai muses, “they’re already here.”

“Ah,” Tenten fudges. “Protocal. They’re just securing a perimeter.”

But Tenten is no longer flirting at Sai’s kitchen table. She’s between a rock and a hard place. And she’s just figured out her mistake.

“What did you say in the message? Nothing strange, yeah?”

Sai glances at her, and it’s all the confirmation she needs.

“I _am_ strange,” he says irritably. “Therefore, anything I say may be considered strange.”

And now, Hinata is ambling towards them out of the woods, from the direction of the town.

“Bear! Sorry we’re late, Bird’s just cleaning up a little scuffle back at the migrant camp. Nothing to worry about.” She arrives to stand before them, beautiful and feminine, dark hair shining. She’s polite. She’s non-threatening. She’s two minor adjustments away from a Gentle Fist stance.

“You must be Sai,” she says in a light, clear voice. “I’m glad to meet you, and I hope we can be of assistance.” She turns to Tenten. “Alright?” she asks.

_Yes,”_ Tenten insists, firmly as she can.

But Hinata turns back to Sai. “I admit, we were a bit confused when we got your message.” She pulls the paper from her pocket, and reads out, “ _Uchiha, Hyuga: she made the right choice. Meet at the western gate in thirty minutes._ And a little smiley face on the bottom. What did you mean by ‘she made the right choice’?”

Tenten’s heart freezes. Fool. She should have looked at his palms when he offered them. Maybe she would have seen this coming. He’s a fool. “She _who_?” she asks weakly.

“ _Y_ _ou_ ,” Sai answers her, blind to the opportunity to lie and save their skins. He addresses Hinata, “I was asked to write a message to tell you where to meet us. I also wanted to express my pleasure at how well the meeting went between me and…” He trails off. Tenten had never offered her name.

“Bear,” Hinata tells him with a smile.

“Yes, Bear. We got along quite well. But now I think it’s time for us all to be honest with each other. Where’s the Uchiha?”

“What Uchiha?” Hinata asks. “Tsunade wouldn’t have told you who she’d be sending.”

Sai rolls his eyes. “The Uchiha hiding in the woods. I see his crows.”

Tenten cannot put a stop to this. If she does, she risks blowing her own cover. She can’t tell Hinata and Itachi the truth, not now, maybe not ever. At least not until she brokers a deal with Tsunade for protection. She needs to let this play out, and if Sai wants to drag himself down, she won’t go with him. He’s afraid, and so he’s becoming belligerent. Hinata won’t stand for that, not when she thinks Itachi’s in danger. And Itachi is nowhere, and everywhere. Crows have begun gathering steadily in the trees.

Hinata’s chakra is coming off her in waves now. “What do you want with him,” she asks lowly.    

Sai snorts derisively. “To steal his eyes, of course. Isn’t that what all Root members want?”

Tenten is looking at Sai’s hands. Spread wide, in jest. Harmless. They say _I am trying to do the right thing, and I am being treated like a criminal. So, fuck you._

Tenten is so focused on Sai’s hands as she waits for the other shoe to drop, that it takes her a moment to realize it already has. The world is reorienting itself around her. Tsukuyomi. Everything blurs, bleeds red a little bit at the edges, and bursts forth colorfully once more.  She realizes, uncomfortably, that crows have been screaming ever since she and Sai arrived in the clearing. How had she not noticed? How did she ever think it was silent?

“Itachi,” Hinata says, carefully. “What did you do?”

Tenten seeks out a new sound. It’s easy to hear in the sudden quiet. Labored breathing. She follows it all the way to Itachi, just in time to see him pull his sword from Sai’s body. It’s slick, dripping. Disgusting. Sai’s hands are still twitching where he lies in a heap on the earth.

Itachi’s usually gentle, sad face is already shutting down, shuttering away what he’s done. “He was talking about Shisui. He… he was still working for Danzo. If they kill me, I won’t be able to protect Sasuke. I had to.”

Hinata ignores him and steps away from the body. She places her hands on Tenten’s shoulders. “Are you alright? Tenten, I’m so sorry. I swear I was watching, but I didn’t realize anything was wrong until he sent that message. It sounded like he had you at the point of a knife. Is it true? Was this all a plot for Danzo to get his hands on Itachi?”

Tenten can’t think of a single thing to say. So she lies. “Yes.”

Hinata sucks in a breath. “Men,” she says. “Men are fools.” She may be talking about Danzo, or Sai, but she’s looking at Itachi when she says it.

Hinata shakes herself and nods once, briskly. “Let’s get out of here. We’ll debrief when we get back to headquarters. Itachi,” she snaps, “pull yourself together. We failed the mission. Tenten, can you seal the body away?”

As it turns out, Tenten cannot seal the body away. Hinata unrolls an inked sheet from Tenten’s scroll, drags Sai’s corpse over to it, cuts the pads of Tenten’s fingers with a kunai, places Tenten’s hands on the seal, and rips Tenten’s tenketsu open with a burst of chakra. Tenten comes to with a jolt, and completes the sealing on autopilot.

When she finishes, she sees that Itachi is wiping his sword clean on the new spring grass. He and Hinata look at each other for a moment.

“Move out,” he says finally.


	6. epilogue

“How did that story end?” Bird asks several hours later.

“What story?” Boar says.

“The one you made up on the way to Taki. With the twins, and the coyotes.”

“I didn’t make it up. It’s just a story my grandmother used to tell.”

Bird is quiet for a moment, then asks in a tired voice, “Can you finish it, Hinata?”

“You don’t want to hear the rest of it. It’s messed up. Haven’t we been through enough in the past couple days?”

Bear speaks her first words in hours. “Tell the story,” she says.

“Fine,” Boar says stiffly. She coughs, and begins. “So, the twins and Coyote go their separate ways. And the next night, the same thing happens. The laughing, the questions of  _ who  _ and the accusations of  _ you.  _ But this time, the taller twin, the one whose eyes see truth, doesn’t sit in fear—he shoots an arrow into the dark, and strikes someone. In the morning, Coyote passes by again, and he’s wounded. So the hasty twin who shot the arrow assumes Coyote is Uktena’s spy, that he’s been tricking them all along. He was in the forest last night, after all, and was close enough to be struck by the arrow. The other twin, whose eyes see great distances, disagrees, but his brother kills Coyote without a second thought. 

On the third night, they’re haunted by the laughter again, and the twins realize their mistake. The taller twin wounded their friend Coyote in the dark, whose intention was only to watch over the twins and protect them. Then, they killed him in place of his brother. Coyote’s cleverer brother  was Uktena’s spy after all, and narrowly escaped the previous night. In the morning, he let his brother die for him. So the smaller twin, whose eyes can see far, takes on the burden of absolving his twin of his shame and guilt for killing their friend and ally, by killing Uktena’s spy himself.”

Boar sighs. “I told you it was a terrible story. I think the moral is that you should listen to your parents, or something.” Boar lets that sink in for a while. Then she stops. She’s alone. Panicked, she backtracks through the woods.

Here’s what she missed, while she was telling her tale: Bird saw the truth. He looked at Bear. And she was looking at him. And so they stopped, among the branches of the trees.

When Boar finds them again, Bear and Bird—Tenten and Itachi—stand facing each other.

_ “Arm yourself, Brother,”  _ Itachi says.

So Hinata does.


End file.
